Jordanelle Kokanee Aug 15

[wiperhunter2]

This was my first year fishing at Jordanelle for Kokanee.  I consider myself a pretty successful kokanee fisherman at Strawberry but being lazy I thought I would try Jordanelle this year.

Jordanelle fishes a lot different than Strawberry.  What works at Strawberry isn't as great at Jordanelle, But I am still trying to figure Jordanelle out.  On all of our trips we caught our limit - except 1 we brought in 7...  But my biggest complaint is that I could not consistiently catch them at Jordanelle.  One Thursday (Holliday Weekend) a friend and I caught close to 40 in a couple hours, we went back on Friday with my daughter and we only caught 12 and had to work hard for them.  The lake was surprisingly not busy on either day as I expected.  

Some things I have noticed with Jordanelle - The fish are ALWAYS shallow.  Deepest I have caught them at was 15-25 ft (19 being the best that day) but most days it is on the surface or 5-10 feet down.

The fish at Jordanelle also like to sleep in.  I've never done well before the sun is up or on the water.

Most of what we are catching does not show up on my finder - they are too shallow.  This makes finding large schools hard to find.  It is also tough to know if you need to change things up.

I also hear a lot of whining of regarding the power squadron at Jordanelle.  They have the right to use the lake as we do and most all have kept well more than the required 150 ft distance from our vessel above wakeless and a good wake every once in a while is awesome for kokanee fishing!  It really changes up the action and we always hook them on a nice wake.  On the negative side, since the fish are so shallow I think they shut off pretty quick when the power fleet finally shows up in full force.

I think I (we) need just a bit more time to figure out how to really consistently slaughter them at the 'Nelle

I was impressed with the average size at Jordanelle, I thought the average was a bit bigger than Strawberry.  I'll keep trying Jordanelle for sure when time is a bit limited.  Easily home by 11:00 with a few limits!

Best of luck!

Welcome to the site. Last year we found that to be true, at least the part about getting off the water early with limits but this year was totally different. That being said, that was my first trip up there this year, so I don't have much to base that on, other than what other members are saying. This year there have been fewer members posting about successful trip, vs members posting about poor outings, so I've stayed away. It's not just Jordanelle, the Gorge and the Berry have not been producing well either. The Gorge biologist thought it could be the result of the warmer temps but wasn't sure. I think it has a lot to do with a more folks out on the water during the week but who knows. If I get up there again I'll for sure try fishing shallow. When was the last time you fished the Nelle?